The maker of the petition should have probably looked at the proposed nation motion a bit more closely. It refers to the recognition of a group of people, not a province, as a nation. A province can't properly be called a nation one way or the other. It's a formal institutional entity - a state. The province-as-nation proposal was Ignatieff's.
One of Canada's leading legal minds, Patrick Monahan, dean of Osgoode Hall Law School at Toronto's York University, has deemed the motion "largely innocuous" because it refers to Quebeckers, not Quebec.
"The Québécois have no legal standing, so there is no real way the resolution can be operationalized," he said. "It skates by the issue and puts it behind us."
Too many otherwise smart people have been confusing nation with state over the past several weeks.
Yeah Coyne made the same point about the petition. However, it was all ready written and hey I'll go with it for now.
And there's also the important distinction that the english version of this resolution still uses "The Québécois" instead of Quebeckers. It's helped create some confusion.
Again, my main problem is not really with legal issues but more everything else.
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One of Canada's leading legal minds, Patrick Monahan, dean of Osgoode Hall Law School at Toronto's York University, has deemed the motion "largely innocuous" because it refers to Quebeckers, not Quebec.
"The Québécois have no legal standing, so there is no real way the resolution can be operationalized," he said. "It skates by the issue and puts it behind us."
Too many otherwise smart people have been confusing nation with state over the past several weeks.
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And there's also the important distinction that the english version of this resolution still uses "The Québécois" instead of Quebeckers. It's helped create some confusion.
Again, my main problem is not really with legal issues but more everything else.
Reply
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